J-Topics

Sylvain Castonguay, a cameraman for CBC's French all-news network, was beaten by a mob while filming protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Other journalists have also been targeted.

Journalist Mac McClelland's experience in Haiti, where she was covering the aftermath of the country's devastating earthquake, included sexual threats from the man she had hired to drive her around. It wasn't the U.S. reporter's first experience with sexual harassment on the job, and definitely not the last (later she would enlist the aid of a rifle-wielding passerby when another man in her employ threatened her). 

From testing out new tools (SMS, crowdsourcing) to relying on older ones, Nieman Journalism Lab shows us what the media should learn from Haiti's earthquake response, one year later. 

On a recent Today Show, the host was interviewing a woman who lost her home in a California mudslide. It was an tearful exchange, but according to this entry in Dave Cullen's blog, the interviewer missed an opportunity to show empathy, instead of going after more information. Cullen says a journalist needs to be ready to put aside the list of prepared questions and to "show some meaningful emotion." What kind of emotion does Cullen suggest? He recommends something like: "I wish I knew what to say." He says this is a more human (and humane) response. Clearly it is, but is it the right one? When exploring trauma, should a journalist really set aside information-gathering when the tears start to flow, and provide soothing reassurance instead? How would you have handled this interview?